Which Patriot, Forefather most influenced your life?

L

longtooth50

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When asked which historical preacher most influenced my life & preaching, my answer gets a blank look from most & especially preachers. John Witherspoon was a Presbyterian Preacher & not a Baptist. He was highly educated in Scotland before coming to America as President of the College of New Jersey. This is now Princeton University.
He signed the Declaration of Independence & was later a delegate to the Continental Congress. During the debate over the Declaration of Independence an unremembered delegate argued that the country was not ripe for independence. Witherspoon response was, “These colonies are not only ripe for the measure but in danger of rotting for the want of it.”
Shortly after receiving the Declaration of Independence in England, the prime minister told King George, “Your American Cousin has run off with a Presbyterian Preacher.”
As president of the College of New Jersey he was the lecturer in most of the classes. Until the last few yrs of Dr. Witherspoon’s service there was only one other professor who aided in the teaching. That one taught Mathematics and astronomy.
Dr. Witherspoon shaped the mind of the men who founded this country & therefore was the one man I believe most responsible for the limited government theory of our Forefathers. One of his stated goals of the school was, “to produce ornaments of the state as well as the church.” This he did with great success.
His graduates include:
12 Delegates to the Continental Congress
President James Madison
Vice President Aaron Burr
9 Cabinet Officers
21 Senators
39 Congressmen
37 Judges, 3 of whom were appointed to the Supreme Court
12 State Governors
John Adams described Dr. Witherspoon, “He is as high a Son of Liberty as any man in America.”
May we all strive daily for that Character Reference.
LT
 
There are so many forefathers of this country who are worthy of admiration. If I have to choose one, I would say Thomas Jefferson. His sensibility and foresight were remarkable.
 
Gotta pick two... Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They were not perfect, as none of us are, but highly instrumental in authoring the Declaration of Independance and the Constitution documents. :)
 
From a forefather stand, I don't know that I can pick a single one. The whole lot of them are very impressive for that they managed to accomplish and for standing for their beliefs.

If I had to give a nod to one though, perhaps John Hansen deserves some praise here. He ordered all foreign troops off American soil, as well as the removal of all foreign flags as the first President under the Articles of the Confederation in 1781. An interesting note is that George Washington was one of the members of Congress who voted for Hansen as president.

Hansen also established Thanksgiving as the 4th Thursday in November.
 
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a "forgotten founding father" of great importance was George Whitefield...his sermons and leadership in the Great Awakening influenced many of the founders including Benjamin Franklin...he had the "ear" of many founders in trying to defend "American" rights when England began to increase its control over the colonies...
 
In some ways I am more influenced by the negatives, such as Hamilton coming to the Constitutional Convention and declaring that the States must be annihilated and that no good could come otherwise.

When I want to understand some aspect of our intended frame of government, if I come to understand how it was viewed by Madison and Jefferson, then I am content.

But I find that it is the "civil war" era which most influences my sense of government and patriotism and such. President Jefferson Davis seemed to see the US Constitution and free government in a true light ... until I read the "confederacy papers" I had no true sense of government. And military reconstruction ... having my State taken over by yankees, with a federal bayonet on every corner, our elected representatives replaced with federal puppets, amending our constitutions to disenfranchise anyone who wasn't loyal to the Northern Party ... like I said, sometimes I am more influenced by the negatives. I'm not sure who to hang it on ... I believe that President Johnson said that the traitors were Thadeus Stevens, Wendell Phillips, and Charles Sumner.
 
Those are very good points Hugh. The growth of the Federal government began in earnest after the civil war. After the civil war, the Federals effectively said to the states "We own you".
 
Thomas Jefferson may have written the DOI and Constitution, but did not necessarily believe everything he wrote. All people were created equal though, unless he owned them, or wanted to have sex with them.
 
Thomas Jefferson may have written the DOI and Constitution, but did not necessarily believe everything he wrote. All people were created equal though, unless he owned them, or wanted to have sex with them.
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Ben Franklin was quite the stud too IIRC.

Thomas Paine, early socialist :)

WildfreedomAlaska ™
 
Thomas Jefferson may have written the DOI and Constitution, but did not necessarily believe everything he wrote. All people were created equal though, unless he owned them, or wanted to have sex with them.
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Jefferson did not write the Constitution, he was in France at the time.

The term "all men are created equal" was a denouncement of monarchy. It meant that the royal family is not born with a divine right to rule. There was no intent to declare racial equality or anything of that nature. I think Jefferson did believe what he wrote, but what he wrote has been reconstructed to mean something other than what he intended.

Lincoln said that we are founded upon the idea that all men are created equal as if it was a declaration of racial equality. It was a lie, it was war propaganda. And in reality Lincoln believed that the negro race was inferior and he hoped to round them all up and ship them away.

If Jefferson had sex with a slave, what part of the DOI and Constitution did that violate? If you're thinking that slavery was unconstitutional, you could not be more wrong.
 
If you're thinking that slavery was unconstitutional, you could not be more wrong.
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All the more reason for a theory of constitutional interpretation based on penumbras, emanations and evolving standards of decency.:D

WildeverythingcutsbothwaysAlaska ™
 
I'm sure this page is about to turn into a little war.

At any rate, I think Thomas Jefferson is an American Hero- he may have made love to a slave, one would assume consensually- maybe he thought of them more as people than others- if he thought of them as sub human, he would have, under such circumstances, been guilty of beastiality. I know of true racists that wouldn't come close to a black girl- they don't want to 'defile' their blood. Perhaps Jefferson was a revolutionary in more ways than one.
 
All the more reason for a theory of constitutional interpretation based on penumbras, emanations and evolving standards of decency.
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Wrong. It's called "amendment". As in "13th". Slavery was not unconstitutional then. It is now.
 
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Mods,
This thread has been taken far from where I hoped it would. If the posts do not get back on topic, away from the contention, & fault finding of our Forefathers, please lock it.
LT
 
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